Seeing the impending boom of digital technology, Anton Woolf, CEO of Argen Corp., conceived a plan to reinvent the company and its product offerings to meet the needs of the changing marketplace. The result? The Argen Digital Center.

Nearly three quarters of respondents to LMT’s exclusive 2014 Wage Survey have taken cost-cutting measures related to personnel in the last two years, citing unpredictable workflows, pricing pressure from dentists and other low-cost labs, and an increase in business costs.

Bart Hyde, Hyde Dental Prosthetics in Fallon, NV, took first place in the 2014 North American Art of Denture Competition. Hyde offers a step-by-step look at his winning entry and his creative thought process.

Over the last 30 years or so, the use of alternative/complementary medical therapies has become more widespread in the U.S. Now allopathic (traditional) practices are taking a more holistic approach to healthcare and the trend is continuing to generate more avenues of opportunity.

In addition, as we learn ever more about how the human body works, it’s become clearer to the traditional medical profession that many important clues to one’s health can be gotten from the oral cavity and, thus, it is of increasing importance for physicians and dentists to work together for the well-being...

The bucolic town of Central City, Pennsylvania lies five miles down the road from the site of the Flight 93 memorial and not far from the Quecreek coalmine that trapped nine men underground for four days in 2002. It’s also home to Curt Morgese, owner of a one-person, high-end C&B dental laboratory. As of last November, he’s also the district’s borough councilman.

“Making teeth has been a life-long passion,” he says. “I am always on a quest for knowledge in my daily profession.” He is also keen on politics.

Uhler Dental Supply showcased its new UDS Pour Acrylic, a dimensionally stable auto-polymer used to make full or partial dentures in alginate (Max Print) or hydrocolloid (New Flex) investment material. LAB DAY attendees were given samples to take home and evaluate the new shades. For more information, call 800-937-3753.

With Precise-Fit from Valplast International Corp., Valplast dentures can now be designed and blocked-out from any digital scan or .stl file and output to a unique printed base that can be tried into the patient’s mouth. All design is done digitally, eliminating duplicate models and traditional waxups with a trial baseplate printed using a proprietary flexible resin and 3D digital printer.

The Precise-Fit baseplate lets dentists evaluate jaw relation and tooth arrangement, as well as preview the fit of the final restoration before processing. The lab can process the baseplate without duplicating...

MaxSteam showcased its new MS MAXFLEXINJECTION system. Made in Italy, the system offers digital control, automatic injection, and fast and easy processing. You select the time (up to 60 minutes) and temperature (up to 400oC) appropriate for the material and then insert the flask. You can use any quality biocompatible colored or transparent material, including nylon, to fabricate flexible dentures, bite guards and mouthguards. The unit weighs 22kg, measures 20x32x45cm and has a maximum pressure of six bars. For more information, call +39 0522371903, email info@maxsteam.it or visit www.maxsteam.it.

Holly Garvin from Dental Associates in Appleton, WI (pictured) and Alex Sakovich from Smile Builders in Palatine, IL, were lucky winners of an iPAD Air in Vident’s LAB DAY Chicago drawing. Anyone who attended a Vident clinic at the show had the chance to enter to win; an entry form was included in a pre-show mailer, making it easy for attendees to choose from six Vident clinics—covering everything from full contour zirconia to removable dentures—and complete the form and drop the entry in the raffle box at LAB DAY.

BEGO USA and EOS announced an exclusive North American partnership focused on using a proprietary laser-melting, 3D metal printing process to fabricate removable partial dentures and fixed crowns and bridges.

“We have a long-term collaborative relationship with EOS and we see the positive impact for our dental laboratory partners from this cooperation,” said Axel Klarmeyer, Global Chief Sales Officer at BEGO. “EOS is a manufacturing innovator across a wide spectrum of major industries. This know-how combined with BEGO’s dental expertise will assist our laboratory partners...

PEEK—poly-ether-ether-ke-tone—was the talk of the IDS in Cologne last year; now, it’s come to the U.S. in the form of the JUVORA Dental Disc made from PEEK sourced directly and exclusively from Invibio® Biomaterial Solutions, a global leader of PEEK biomaterials. Available from JUVORA Inc., the disc received FDA clearance for milling frameworks for complete and partial removable dentures and implant overdentures earlier this year.

“PEEK has had some use historically in dental applications such as abutments and healing caps. However, now with the JUVORA Dental Disc, dental...

All day Friday, the LB Promenade was buzzing with LAB DAY attendees trying to get a look at the display of 28 entries in the second North American Art of Denture (KunstZahnWerk®) Competition, sponsored by Ivoclar Vivadent and LMT.

During the Friday afternoon award ceremony, Sarah Anders, Ivoclar Vivadent’s new Senior Vice President of North American Sales, was on hand to congratulate the winners. “The Art of Denture Competition allows us to celebrate the incredible skills of dental technicians from across North America. The winners continue to amaze us with their abilities and creativity,”...

In early February, LMT traveled to Panthera Dental in beautiful Quebec City to learn more about this new high-tech production center and its digital product offerings, including zirconia and PEEK double-structure bars.

Though first developed in the 1950s by Arpad Nagy of Valplast, flexible partial dentures didn’t take off until the 1980s; as the cosmetic wave hit dentistry, dentists and patients alike looked for solutions that were both functional and esthetic.

Today, flexible dentures make up 20% of the average workload for full service and removable laboratories, according to LMT’s 2012 Removable Survey, and demand is on the rise: half of these labs are selling more flexible partials than they were five years ago.

LMT: I understand you’ve cracked the code for digitizing the denture fabrication process. Can you fill us in?

Thompson: For the past four years, Global Dental Science has been developing an exclusive digital platform for the design and manufacture of AvaDent Digital Dentures. It’s the result of a comprehensive process called Computer Aided Engineering (CAE) used in conjunction with CAD/CAM; CAE uses sophisticated, scientific algorithms...

In January, Vinnie Verderosa, CDT, MDT, Stony Brook University School of Dental Medicine, spent nine days working with the Giving Through Smiles Foundation in Neltume, Chile, a remote logging village in the foothills of the Andes Mountains. He was the only technician in a 10-person team from New York, including prosthodontists and dentists. They joined forces with dentists and dental students from a university in Chile to fabricate 50 dentures and treat 150 children with rampant tooth decay.

A clinic was set up in the lunchroom of a school, along with two rooms for denture work. The volunteers...

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LMT Communications delivers the business strategies, information, dental laboratory news and education that dental laboratory decision-makers need to succeed. Through LMT Magazine and our LAB DAY shows, LMT works to advance excellence in dental technology, enhance the products, services and communication of dental technicians, and give dental laboratory owners and managers the tools they need to flourish. Learn More »